


Mrs Coulter and self-control

by Metabird (wheatear)



Series: Character archetypes [10]
Category: His Dark Materials (TV), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass (2007)
Genre: Character Analysis, Character Study, Embedded Video, Gen, Manipulation, Meta, Nonfiction, Spoilers, Women In Power, character comparison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 14:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23043778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheatear/pseuds/Metabird
Summary: In the television adaptation, we see Mrs Coulter losing control. Book Mrs Coulter would never. A meta analysis of how the show deprives Mrs Coulter of her power.
Series: Character archetypes [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1655167
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Mrs Coulter and self-control

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the halfamoon challenge at Dreamwidth.

There are now three versions of Mrs Coulter that I'm familiar with: book, film and TV show. In this post I'm going to compare Mrs Coulter's characterization in the film and show with that of the book. Overall I would argue that Mrs Coulter in the film is closer to the book character than Mrs Coulter in the TV show. That doesn't make the film version better, necessarily; I think the show made a lot of interesting choices with the character and I like it as its own distinct interpretation, but it's certainly a move away from my interpretation of the book.

I would say there are two key differences between Ruth Wilson's portrayal of Mrs Coulter and the book character. The first is that the TV version is characterized by her _rage_. You feel like she could snap at any point every time she's on screen. There are many scenes where she's on the verge of losing control, and several scenes where she does lose control in a fit of screaming rage. This is utterly different to the book character, who does get angry of course, and whose viciousness is channeled through her daemon, but who always felt to me like she was poised and in control. I think an instructive way to look at the difference here is to compare the same scene from the show and the film:

In the film, Kidman's character retains control throughout the scene. Lyra defies her and Mrs Coulter responds by viciously attacking Lyra's daemon. The scene ends with Mrs Coulter smiling and leaning down to make Lyra kiss her. The golden monkey's attack was therefore a means of terrifying Lyra into obedience. It reveals Mrs Coulter's cruelty but it's not that her mask slips. She chooses to do this, to show Lyra what she's capable of, and that makes her all the more terrifying. This is very much in line with the book.

In contrast, the TV show has Mrs Coulter lose her temper. She doesn't want to let the mask slip, you can see it on her face, the way she hesitates and then turns back around because she can't hold back her anger any longer. Lyra says outright at the beginning of the scene that Mrs Coulter lost control and that puts Mrs Coulter on the back foot immediately because she's right. This clip doesn't show it, but what happens after this scene illustrates the same point: Mrs Coulter accidentally lets slip that Lord Asriel is Lyra's father.

Book Mrs Coulter would never. What I love about Mrs Coulter in the book is what a perfect actress she is: she can lie about anything and manipulate anyone up to and including an archangel. I don't think the TV version could. She lies and manipulates, yes, but she struggles to keep her emotions in check and that gives her away.

I wonder if the show writers thought they were making Mrs Coulter scarier with this characterization choice. I'd say the opposite. Mrs Coulter has less power in the TV version of this scene; she's less in control of the situation and less in control of herself. She's still formidable, of course; it's her wild unpredictability that makes her scary but it's clear even early on that her rage causes her to make mistakes and that's a weak point.

The second key difference between Mrs Coulter in the TV show and in the book is that Wilson's version seems consumed by some deep-seated misery and self-loathing. The film version hints at conflict with her daemon in a scene where she hits him, and the TV show takes this to a whole new level: she won't even let him speak. I don't remember any suggestion in the book that Mrs Coulter had such a poor relationship with her daemon; most of the time they seem to work together pretty well. The only time we see a rift between them is in _The Amber Spyglass_ when the golden monkey is said to be unhappy with Mrs Coulter's decision to live with Lyra in the mountain cave, but this to me read as a metaphor for Mrs Coulter's inner conflict between her love for Lyra and her own ambition, rather than a deeper expression of self-loathing.

One thing I missed in both the show and the film, and which we largely see in _The Amber Spyglass_ so I have hopes that we might see it in the show, is Mrs Coulter's sense of _fun_. She's having a great time when she spies on the Magisterium and Lord Asriel. She revels in what she does; she isn't miserable, nor does she have suicidal impulses as the TV show hinted. She's a much more entertaining character in the book.

It's probably obvious that my favourite interpretation is the book, and not just because it's the original. What I love about Mrs Coulter is how unashamedly manipulative she is. There's nothing she can't do. These traits are most fully realized in the book version. The film version doesn't quite have the room to play up the lying (and actually has Mrs Coulter tell Lyra that she's her mother, which to me was a mistake) and the TV version is too careless. The film doesn't have the space to show much of how Mrs Coulter fits in with the Magisterium either. The TV show does and it makes the choice to show Mrs Coulter struggling to maintain her power, which is interesting and I can see why they did it in terms of the drama, but again it has the effect of making her seem less powerful. She doesn't effortlessly get her way. I always felt like Mrs Coulter in the book was playing games with other people, always certain that she'd get her way or get out of the situation in the end, and that was great fun too.

tl;dr: book Mrs Coulter is the most competent, and that's why I like her the best.

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